Mixed Media Card Challenge - Family

It's the first of the month and that means it's a new challenge up at the mixed media card challenge. Some people think that mixed media means you have to get allllllll messy and grungy. While, I find it fun to do that stuff (throw texture paste around like confetti!) mixed media for this challenge just means mixing 3 different types of mediums. 

Think inks, markers, embossing, paint, ribbon, wire, rhinestones, sprays, watercolors, etc- The possibilities really are endless and totally fun to explore. 

The theme over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge is family with the option of adding arrows.  I was looking through some digital stamps recently, and stumbled upon Boughs for the Wreath by Mo's Digital Pencil. 

Every Christmas, when I was a little girl, my dad and mom would my siblings and I trudging through the snow to find our perfect Christmas tree. We kids would dance around, pointing at this tree and that until we finally found the tallest, roundest, fullest one and my dad would crouch down and saw away until we took it home! 

He's also very known for making gorgeous Christmas wreaths with the leftover boughs - so this image just made me stop in my tracks and relive all those memories. :) 

But enough of the sniffly sentiments and on to the show! For my background, I pulled out a lovely emerald green piece of cardstock, dry embossed with circular shapes (because they reminded me of wreaths) and then added some Perfect Copper Perfect Pearls to really accentuate the raised areas. 

There are many different ways to use Perfect Pearls, but with this type of application, I inked the raised areas with Perfect Medium, then applied the dry powder directly to the inky areas. Finally, spritz with water from a mini mister because that's what makes it adhere permanently to the paper. 

The end result is so shimmery and gorgeous and sure to make a statement! 

I finished coloring the image, and then thought about the other aspects of a wreath to inspire my finished design. 

I die cut the image with a Spellbinders frame, and added little red rhinestones, because they reminded me of the berries my dad uses on his wreaths. And it wouldn't be a real wreath without ribbons and bells, so I found this lovely leftover piece of ribbon, tied it in a big ol' bow and then glued on some jingle bells. Finally, I embossed a simple gold sentiment from the STAMPlorations Joyful set. 

Totally love how this turned out, and I think it's the perfect homage to my papa!

I'm gonna send this lovely over to play in the following challenges:

Really Reasonable Ribbon - Get a head start on Christmas or Hannakuh 

Allsorts - Christmas

Hiding In My Craftroom - Freestyle

Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes

DP2 Challenge - Anything Goes with Mo's Digital Image

Eclectic Ellapu Challenge - Balloons, Banners or Bows

Holy schmoly! Is it November already? Where has the year gone?! I dunno, but I've had a very busy weekend in my craft room catching up on Design Team stuffs. 

Once such card, I'm super excited to share because I had tons of tons of fun making it. 

I recently received the Simon Says Stamp July Stamp Set - Sailing and finally got the chance to ink it up. 

I knew I wanted to do a shaker card, but I didn't know that I'd spend the next two hours on the project... But that's how ideas work, isn't?

Here's how I made my shaker and frame: 

The green square was cut out of foam because that's honestly the EASIEST way to make a shaker ever. Just make a cutout with foam and a frame that will cover it! It will keep all your shaker bits in and it's much easier than trying to use double-sided tape and line everything up with no gaps. 

The tan square was actually a piece of cardboard that I cut to the dimensions I needed. And here's where the two hours part comes in: I decided to wrap it in red twine. I don't know why... the twine was staring at me saying "Use me" and my brain was like "ok then" and two hours later I was scratching my head trying to figure out HOW I had managed to ever make yarn crosses like that in Sunday school as a toddler. It was HARD! 

On the plus side though, it turned out uber cute!

Since the theme of the challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu is 

>>Banners, Balloons, or Bows<<

I incorporated a sweet little banner in the upper corner. My shaker has a ship, waves, and a little bit of blue frantage. All of the papers are from the same Simon Says Stamp kit. 

I'm gonna send this fella over to play in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Work it Wednesday - Thank you card
Just Add Ink - W is for (Water in my case) 

Handmade Card with Watercolors and Love

Sometimes in life you have things that just make you go awwwwwwwwwwww.

Like receiving a handmade card that your boyfriend has commissioned! 

The card I'm going to share today was commissioned by a local fella who wanted to surprise his girlfriend with something extra special.

Since red and love are synonymous (red is also the color of anger - coincidence?) I quickly landed on that as my inspiration. 

I started out by spritzing a piece of heavy watercolor paper with my mini mister because I wanted my colors to flow. Then, I picked up some red on my brush and watched it do it's thaaaaang. It started spreading all over and then I added some touches of copper. 

These watercolors are suuuuuper pretty and oh-so-vibrant. They are the Kuretake 36 color set. I tried them at a crafting retreat and fell in love instantly!

But. Back to the card. As I was talking to the commissioner of the card, we landed on the sentiment from Unity's Faceless Beauty set that said "You are more beautiful than you could ever imagine." Awwwww... anyone else jealous? Because I am a little bit. 

I embossed the sentiment on a piece of heavy vellum, stamped and fussy cut some gold butterflies from the STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies set and then backed the panel in some DCWV gold foiled paper. 

If this guy doesn't win major boyfriend brownie points... well... I did my best. :) 

I'm going to send it over to compete in the following places:

• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is to pick one of their previous challenges and give it a go again. I chose one from October - Wonderful Watercolor. 
• TCP Tuesday - This is a new challenge to me and I thought I'd give it a go! It's Anything Goes and you can use any stamp brand.
• Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes

Thanks for popping by! Leave me a comment or follow my blog and I will try to do the same for you. :) 

Cute Halloween Card - Inkspirational Guest Designer

I don't know about you, but I am a HUGE hoarder of craft supplies. Last year when I first started blogging, I was introduced to "blog candy" and I won a big ol' package of October Afternoon Halloween supplies. Unfortunately, they came in the mail after Halloween was already over, so I haven't played with them at all!

But thanks to Inkspirational challenge, I now have a reason! 

They asked me to Guest Design for their latest challenge, which is cute Halloween (or pumpkins/owls for those who don't do Halloween cards)

I started out with some of the awwww-dorable vintagey Halloween images from the Witch Hazel embellishment pack, and then I picked out some graphic prints from the matching Witch Hazel paper pack. 

Isn't it sooooo cute? I finished it off by building my own sentiment from the STAMPlorations Joyful set. 

I'm also going to send this fun card over to the following challenges:

Friday Mashup - Create a project using ribbon OR for Halloween

Craft Rocket Challenge - Spooky 

Fusion - I used the theme - All Ha1low's Eve

Thanks for popping by! Hope to see you all playing along at Inkspirational! 

WINNERS - Hop to Stop

238 - that's the number of gorgeous creations that were linked up in support of domestic violence awareness.

Every morning I woke up to a new wash of purple and you all have NO idea just how much you touched my life. You also don't know how you touched the lives of others. I got so many comments, messages, and emails about just how much the Hop meant to them and how the stories shared created a safe place to look back on buried memories. Thank you for creating a space of healing and camaraderie, whether you shared a story or shared a card. 

A BIG shoutout to the fine folks who mailed me cards to donate to the Community Violence Intervention Center.... I can't wait to give them to the center and I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Another >>HUGE<< thank you goes to the 14 amazing companies who agreed to sponsor the Hop. <3 You all are class acts and I'm so proud to support you. THANK YOU!


And now - the moment you've all been waiting for! 

THE WINNERS
IF YOU HAVE WON, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT bexcruger@gmail.com!

Make sure to go visit the sponsors and say thanks!

 

The Cat's Pajama's, with a $50 Gift Card - #91 Zub Momi

DCWV with a prize pack of papers and stickers - #199 Dawn Pool

 The Funkie Junkie with 3 Distress Spray Stains - #159 -Terri Burson

Hero Arts a prize pack of stamps and embellies - #19 Lee-Anne

Happy Little Stampers  a $30 gift card - #75 - Jerrie

May Arts Ribbon a TON of purple ribbon - #13 Jessi Fogan

MHK Designs  gorgeous digital stamps & paper - #31 - LauraJane

Newton's Nook with a $20 gift card - #153 Sharron Gregory

Paper Temptress with a $25 gift card - #132 Maria F

Simon Says Stamp - 6 of their purple ink pads - #2 Mynn Kitchen

STAMPlorations with a $20 gift card - #11 Donna T

Unity with a $200 prize package - #76 Aileen

Verve Stamps with a $30 gift card - #28 Barbara G

Winnie & Walter with a $25 gift card - #74 Michele

I wish that I could have given all of you a prize but unfortunately I haven't won the lottery yet! However, I did another drawing for the few of you who left comments on all of the sponsors places and on as many of the blogs that you could get access to. (Here's looking at you KT Fit Kitty, Dr. Sonia, Jerrie, and Dawn Pool) 

I really appreciate you all taking the time to leave lots of love for others! Not only that, but all of you took time to link up almost EVERY day of the Hop! WOW! So I am donating a collection of the Wilted Violet Distress Ink Products (spray stain, ink pad, marker, reinker). And the winner of the drawing was KT Fit Kitty. 

Dr. Sonia, could you also email me your address so I can send you a little extra love?!

Thank you ALL for helping to create such awareness! 

Daffodils and Splatters Card - STAMPlorations challenge reminder

Have you played yet? Have you played yet? Have you played yet?

STAMPlorations challenge is at it again with another great sketch and theme! To play along in their challenges, all you need to do is follow one or the other. You don't even have to use STAMPlorations products and there are super swell prizes. 

That's my card!

Rather than using the sketch this time around, I just chose to focus on the theme. Ya'll (sometimes I like to pretend I'm a nice tan, Texan instead of a pasty white North Dakotan) know that purple and teal is one of my favorite color schemes, but another one that I heart is blue and yellow. 

I mean.... if vintage were a color scheme, I'd probably go with that. Ha! So I tried to work it in, as well. 

I used the gorgeous daffodils from The Birds and The Blooms set and that lovely sentiment is from the Fond Expressions 2 set. 

Go play along at STAMPlorations! 

Here's the sketch and the theme.

Just a quick post from me today because I'm scrambling to pack up so I can go on a 5-hour trek to visit my family and take my niece to a Disney Princess party. Woohoo - adorable dresses! 

Hop to Stop Winners - Drawing Live Tonight on Periscope

Just wanted to pop in quick to say that I'm going to be drawing the winners for the Hop to Stop prizes tonight in preparation for Saturday's blog post (to give me time to put it all together!)

Since I have to do the drawing anyway - I thought it would be fun to try my hand at Periscoping it live (insert nervous laughter here). 

So if you want to watch (and mock my funny North Dakotan accent) - pop onto Periscope and find me by searching Becca Cruger or @damselofdistressed on your phone. 

I'll be drawing live TONIGHT 10/15/15 at 8:30 p.m. CST

If you don't have a fancy smart phone, you can also view from a computer at https://www.periscope.tv/damselofdistressed. 




Not sure what the heck Periscope is? It's a super fun live video app in which you can interact with your favorite crafters WHILE they are making things! Whoa! Here's a link to more info! 

What is Periscope and how do I use it?